As many of you, for several years I downloaded illegally, several thousand songs to various MP3 players, today, I own an Apple iPod player that can hold all of my songs in its memory. At the time I did my illegal downloading, starting from Napster, I had no other options, now that we do, I suggest, the much better alternative of paying 99 cents per song, buying only the songs you like from within a CD and avoiding the following problems, now present in my iPod:

* Songs suddenly ending (even though I thought, I knew how to avoid this problem).
* Poor sound quality 25% of the time.
* Tremendous disparity in the sound level among songs.
* Sudden augmentation in the sound level within a song.

Additionally, you can save yourself:

* Hundreds of recording hours.
* Personal guilt.
* Having to hear others telling you than you are dishonest.
* Lately, even risking a jail sentence.

99 cents is not much to pay to avoid the above pitfalls!

For smudges and scratches on discs, non-gel toothpaste will do the trick. Just rube a little on, then remove it with a damp cloth. It may leave a few tiny scratches on the surface, but they won’t affect the sound.

Most of the time when we have to sing strange sounds (“puh” sounds for example) you can notice that they are sometimes dirty or not clear. To avoid the “pops” in vocals take an old pair of tights and stretch them over a wire circle (a good idea is to use a coat hanger), then fix this in position on the microphone stand. The correct distance is about 4" from the microphone.

Sometimes music composition software can be a musician's best friend! These programs help in the writing process by organizing your work and allow you to see what you're playing. Quality software packages provide features including a metronome to keep beat and playback, so you can listen to what you've composed. There is also an input feature, so you can hook your instrument or microphone directly to your computer and notate a song you play or sing. Plus, there are tons of editing tools so you can easily compose a riff.